Filament
by UtterlyDisappoint
Summary: They're off on a mission alone. They're older now, and things happen along the way. They drink and make mistakes with one another, get injured, and get lost. They arrive to find a group of merchants so deeply corrupt that they're put in a new, more serious type of danger. Starring Kiba, Ino, Shikamaru, Sakura, Hinata, Choji, Neji, and Rock Lee. Warnings inside, pairings will vary.
1. one

a/n: I guess Naruto is the only thing I'm every gonna be able to write about. I should just resign myself to that fact right now. Anyway, don't let the description freak you out. I promise to try to make this thing worth it if you'll just stick with it, my lovely readership. Anyway, I wanted to try my hand at something longer as well as something that deals with: 1) the reality of the crazy ass missions these poor kids get sent on and 2) the fact that people entering young adulthood are going to act up. Enjoy lots of super not subtle parallels to my college experience. ;)

{Warnings: sex, drugs, and people getting boo boos :c awwww. Read at your own peril.}

Disclaimer: Hi my name is Masashi Kishimoto and I own Naruto. (no)

.

.

The mission could not have come at a better time, nor at a worse time. The teenaged ninja of Konohagakure were, what with the shaky peace and unseasonably hot summer, hungry for conflict of any kind as long as it could distract them from themselves. Sasuke was missing, Naruto had gone to train with Jiraya. Those of that generation who remained were left to quietly mature in the absence of the dynamic pair. In the quiet of her home, Hinata let her hair and her confidence grow. Ino, without someone to fight over, reigned in her pride and quit wearing purple. Sakura, alone, allowed herself to dive as deeply into the art of healing as she once had into the drama of Team Kakashi. Neji took to wearing a white tunic much more indicative of the Hyuuga family, about the same time he decided to stop wearing his trademark furrowed brow. Kiba found himself sobered by Akamaru's rapid growth in the face of his own, which seemed to be at a standstill. Choji quit worrying about his weight completely and developed a new taste for beer. Lee fought hard against the slow and inevitable deflation of his once infallible good spirits. Shikamaru observed and passed his private judgments. They all became more skilled and, in the face of Sasuke's seemingly permanent absence and the hopelessness of Naruto's determination to win him back, all privately dealt with varying doses of disillusionment. Each kept to him or herself during this time, although companionship might have helped. Soon they would be all each other had.

Sakura was sent at sunrise to gather a large team of her acquaintances; Kiba, Choji, Neji, Hinata, Rock Lee, Ino, and Shikamaru- and to bring them back to Tsunade's office. The mission was to take place in the small and remote Land of Frost. The task was deceptively simple: to infiltrate the union of oil merchants there, which Tsunade and the local Daimyo believed to be corrupt, and to destroy all information concerning Konohagakure that was not completely necessary in order to maintain a trade agreement. Also: to gather intel on the local stone merchants without being detected. The large team was to be broken up upon entering the Land of Frost based on logistics and data gathered on the scene, not beforehand. At dawn of the following morning they would depart.

_Simple-_ Shikamaru thought, standing wordlessly between Choji and Sakura, _so simple that this many people will only fuck us up_. He wondered idly about possible ulterior motives that Tsunade might've had in putting them all together like this. Perhaps, he decided in the end, she just wanted the village clear of his shiftless generation in order to clear a path for the younger ninja to blaze. He also noted, after they were dismissed, that Tsunade had neglected to elect someone as the team leader. He decided that, for the good of the group, he would assert his power sooner rather than later. It certainly wouldn't be prudent for someone like Kiba to take the wheel. Outside of the Hokage's office, he turned to the others.

"Let's be sure to get a good night's rest, everyone," he said, sweeping his eyes over every face that surrounded him. "A large group like this should have no trouble with the mission and we'll have plenty of time on the trail to dick around, but as long as we're here we want to make a good impression."

There, a perfect and unsolvable mash of authority and laxity- a veritable Machiavellian princehood of love and fear. The group nodded and a smattering of laughs and murmurs of agreement closed the deal. Shikamaru smiled down at his shadow as he walked away toward home. The day was spent gathering what each member of the team believed was necessary for the journey- coats, new kunai and shuriken, soap, et cetera. The night was spent differently by each, combining varying partitions of sleeping or repacking. Night came and went without a moment's break from the dry heat that permeated the village. Sakura and Choji arrived first.

"Hello, Choji!" Sakura greeted him good-naturedly, despite the hour and their complete lack of any sort of history together. All she could really remember was laughing about his weight, and she wondered if he remembered that too. She also wondered, fleetingly, if he and his average looks would be as quick to fall for her as Naruto was.

"Hey Sakura," he replied with a half-yawn. She'd grown quite an ass since their Academy days, but all he could think about when he looked at her was that embarrassing torch she'd always carried for Sasuke Uchiha. He couldn't bring himself to become interested in her, even though he knew she'd be easier than the other girls by far. The other girls, however, had substance- of which Choji, quite substantial himself, desired a bit more. Ino, Lee, Neji, and Hinata arrived next. They all greeted one another sleepily with the exception of Lee, who gave the group a sunny wave before sidling up to Sakura and gazing at her expectantly. Kiba and Shikamaru brought up the rear and with a final check of attendance, the group set off. The day progressed with that special brand of awkward smoothness that always comes from running alongside acquaintances. The fragments of old teams ran together for the most part- Ino, Shikamaru, and Choji, Hinata and Kiba, Lee and Neji. Sakura was left to run off to the left until Lee beckoned her to his side. He tried briefly to start a conversation, but they were both breathing hard and Sakura didn't seem to want to talk anyhow. Despite this disappointing encounter, and despite it being an addition to an infinitely long list of other such disappointing encounters, Lee vowed that this trip would definitely bring him closer to Sakura. He believed it, too. They stopped for lunch in a small village, talked about logistics and gossip from back home, and delved back into silence as soon as they returned to the trail. The day's sweltering heat gradually lessened, and by dusk the team had chosen and set up camp at a site close to a small lake.

Sleeping arrangements were a problem- the tents were made for two, and many of the teens were not past the phase in which sleeping next to a girl meant much more than it should've. Neji took Lee by the arm and left the center of the campsite without a word. Sakura and Ino ran off together before anyone could proposition them. Without meeting Hinata's eyes Shikamaru slunk off with Choji, muttering that "team ties help decide situations like these." Truthfully, Kiba was fine with being stuck with Hinata. They were on the same team and he'd always been fond of her, despite her being a bit of a wet blanket. Hinata felt similarly, having never felt as threatened by Kiba's attitude as her friends had. She told him so in that soft little voice of hers.

"I think they're more upset about this than I am." Her shoulders twitched as she laughed.

Kiba laughed too and pinched her cheek. "They think I'm gonna steal away your innocence or something," he snickered. "Christ."

"Only I know the truth," she looked up at him and smiled conspiratorially. "You're nothing but a big puppy!" At this Akamaru's ears shot up, and they both broke into laughter again.

"Shh, don't tell anyone though, baby," growled Kiba. "I've got a reputation to uphold here."

They finished setting up camp, built a fire, and settled in for a dinner of fish caught from the nearby pond. As they ate, Choji stood and addressed the group.

"I dunno about you guys, but I'm about ready to dig the stick out of my ass and have some actual fun." He reached into his backpack and pulled out two bottles each of sake and whiskey. "You ready for me to drink you all under the table?"

The presence of alcohol made plenty of the group happy, but not all. Lee saw the bottles and promptly panicked. Kakashi-sensei and Gai-sensei drank, and as far as Lee knew all it did was impair their judgment and make them rash. In addition, he did not know but he had been told been told what alcohol did to him. Kimimaro could've certainly testified to that fact, if he wasn't dead. Hinata also wasn't pleased, mostly due to the fact that she'd never had alcohol before. However, Kiba seemed to be in his element with a bottle of whiskey in his fist, and that made her feel a little better. Neither of them voiced their concerns as the bottles were passed around. Lee unobtrusively passed each bottle on without doing more than touching his lips to the sticky, bitter rims. Hinata learned, at Kiba and Choji's insistence, how to take shots without choking. The alcohol worked its magic sooner than expected- after one sip each the group lit up and began talking and joking as best friends do- it had finally given them an excuse to do so. Neji and Shikamaru soon broke off from the rest, only to engage one another in a fierce political debate about elite ninja families. Ino sauntered over and planted herself happily in Shikamaru's lap.

"You two _really_ need to relax, okay?" she drawled, slinging an arm around Shikamaru's neck. "My baby brother here spends the _whole fuckin' day _sitting around and thinking about stuff, and as soon as we get outta Konohagakure what does he start doing? _Thinking about stuff._"

Shikamaru tried to wave her hand off, but he found instead that her shoulder was quite a comfortable headrest. "Whaddaya mean brother," he mumbled.

"You're on a team together, aren't you?" scoffed Neji, wagging a finger at Shikamaru. "Why would she see you as anything else? I see Lee as my brother. My… obnoxious, insane, adopted brother."

Shikamaru wound an arm around Ino's waist and settled his head into a more comfortable position against her shoulder. He mumbled something, but it was so quiet and slurred that only Ino could've heard it. Neji shook his head and turned to Lee, who was eerily quiet and sitting next to a rapidly talking Sakura. Sakura's face was red and shiny as she outlined every detail of her current theory about Sasuke's whereabouts. Her eyes were rimmed with red and moist at the corners. Lee looked concerned- he held her hand tightly- but he also looked utterly bored. Turning his head from Lee and Sakura, Neji slid off his headband, sipped from a nearly empty bottle of sake that stood on the ground nearby, and stared upward at the stars. He felt as lonely in a crowd as he had ever felt alone at his estate. Meanwhile, Choji and Kiba were busy being proven solidly wrong about their assumptions that Hinata would be a lightweight. She was four shots in and she was still as quiet and soft as ever, if not slightly red in the face. Kiba teased her mercilessly- an unfortunate side effect of his own inebriation- while Choji descended slowly into a vegetative state in which he was capable only of staring at her chest. Eventually, only to Kiba, Hinata began to loosen up.

"Fuuuuck, how can you _possibly_ hold all that liquor?" he had asked. "Guess it all just goes to those magnificent boobs of yours, hmm?"

His hand stretched toward her chest, fingers wiggling comically, and she smacked it away with a palm charged with a tiny zap of chakra- enough to sting like static electricity.

"You're a dick, Kiba," she squeaked, no longer able to contain her giggles.

He snatched his hand back with an offended expression, feigned anger for about thirty seconds, and finally suggested that they go back to the tent and get some sleep. She agreed. They helped one another stand and staggered away from the dying fire in one another's arms. All four bottles were empty. Ino, ever energetic, suggested a swim in the lake to cool off. She had to lay Shikamaru, who was snoring softly, carefully onto the ground before she could get up and run toward the water. Neji followed with a shrug, which prompted Choji to stir from his stupor and sway toward the lake as well. The night dragged on like a court case. The morning came like a hard fall to the ground.

.

.

This is actually the weirdest thing I've ever written. Check back in like 2 days or something for The Hangover part III: Konoha Edition.


	2. two

a/n: I don't know what I'm doing, I'm just doing it.

.

.

Rock Lee awoke to a crowded tent filled with bitter, stagnant air. When he stirred he disturbed Sakura, who lay wild-haired and without a blanket between himself and Neji. She groaned, rolled onto her side facing Lee, and pressed two palms glowing weakly with light green chakra to her forehead.

"Are you injured, Sakura?" Lee asked.

She twitched, as if she hadn't realized he was there. Upon looking up into Lee's face, she sighed heavily and shook her head. "No, no. Just hung over, I guess."

Lee, concerned by her gravelly voice and pinched brow, placed a cautious hand on her forearm. "Is there anything I can do to help you feel better?"

Cracking her eyes open again, she gave him a sidelong glance before shaking her head and rolling onto her other side. "Stop talking."

In turn Sakura's shuffling roused Neji, who immediately sat up and smoothed down his hair. He looked exhausted; his generally pristine white eyes marred by dark rings and red rims, his shirt from the previous day askew across his chest. Lee caught his eye and after a moment of silent communication they both adjusted themselves and slipped outside into the muggy morning light. It was foggy and humid, the heavy air hinting strongly that heat would soon descend. The lake was completely obscured by the haze, which lay low like cobwebs across the dry grass. Shikamaru sat in front of a small, smoky fire with his back to the tents. He did not turn or respond when Lee called out to him. Finally, sitting down on either side of him, Neji and Lee realized why he hadn't. His left eye was blackened and swollen nearly shut, sparkling in the dim sunlight with a thin sheen of what could only be disinfectant. With his good eye he glared at Lee, then Neji, then down into the fire.

"I want you to wake up the others and tell them to be packed and ready to leave in one hour."

"Of course, um, Shikamaru," Lee said a little too loudly, "um, is that all?"

Neji raised his eyebrows and asked bluntly "what happened to your face?"

Shikamaru fixed him with a withering glare intense enough to curdle milk. "Choji," he spat. And without another word, he bent back down to poke at the fire with a stick and refused to answer any other questions thrown at him. Neji and Lee were left to walk around the ring of tents and wake the others. They found Ino and Sakura alone in separate tents. When Ino awoke, she found that she could hardly breathe through her nose, having caught a cold from the previous night's swim. After Neji and Lee had left their tent, Sakura had woken up completely but stayed inside trying to fix her hair. They found her gazing into a hand mirror, pulling at her eyelashes. Once outside she whispered to Ino about Shikamaru's eye, but Ino claimed to know nothing about it. Neji had to drag Choji out by his feet before he opened his eyes and yawned. He clapped Shikamaru amiably on the shoulder but also stayed silent about the eye that he had supposedly injured. Lastly, Lee tapped softly on the canvas door of Kiba and Hinata's tent. At first there was no response, but eventually the sounds of stirring could be heard from the inside, the zipper opened, and the two emerged looking well rested and quite normal, followed by a bleary-eyed Akamaru. After Kiba asked as they disassembled their tent, Hinata laughed when she realized that she remembered next to nothing from the previous night.

"That's a relief," Kiba replied. "I remember saying some pretty douchey things."

"Well, how's that any different from any other day?"

"Heh, good point. Guess it was pretty much the same."

It wasn't- not by any stretch of the imagination- and Kiba remembered it all. By the time he and Hinata returned to the tent the things he'd been saying had turned from crass to deep and revealing. _You're so much more than a teammate to me, honey_, he'd whispered to her as she slipped off her sandals outside the door. _You're beautiful,_ he'd said, running his fingers through a wisp of her hair as she crawled inside. At this she'd laughed dizzily and slapped him on the arm before collapsing onto her sleeping bag. _I never thought you'd grow up to be so damn perfect,_ he'd admitted while covering his eyes so she could undress. He ignored Akamaru, who was curled up and snoring softly in a corner. She remembered nothing.

_I want you, Hinata,_ he murmured as he kissed her cheek with quivering lips and heavy breath._ So fucking bad. _At this she'd smiled at him, shut her eyes, and fallen asleep.

She remembered nothing, and it was better that way. He'd tried to force something to happen with that kiss, but when it hadn't he'd mustered up the good sense to back off. Other than making her sleepy, the only thing that night seemed to have done to her was to make her feel closer to Kiba as a friend. He didn't mind that, of course, but he was beginning to feel as if their friendship was too strong to be marred with anything more complicated. Having never felt close to Shino and having recently felt alienated from his other friends, Hinata was a more precious presence in his life than ever- and although he may not have seen that reality clearly, he was aware of it to enough of a degree that it frightened him.

With everything packed away they set off. It was around 10 am by then, and the sun had already burned away the fog and thoroughly heated the air and ground. The team of eight stepped heavily against the warm dirt and knotty tree limbs, even less inclined to make conversation with one another than they had been the day before. Ever the exception, Lee made dappled efforts to talk to Sakura. He commented to her, without invitation or reply, on the subtle changes in the plant life he noticed as they drew further and further from their home village. He laughed and nudged her when they passed two birds fighting over something in midair. He asked her if she was alright when they passed into a darker part of the forest and she stepped on a centipede. Eventually, in the afternoon, he gave up and talked to Neji, who responded. Toward the rear of the group, Ino was having trouble keeping up due to her congestion. She'd hardly said a word that day after discovering that her voice had been reduced to a mere whisper by the water and night air- she was embarrassed that her own idea had led to such a thing. She would no longer be able to hide her cold if it slowed her down much more. Still, she pushed on without complaint. On one hand she was happy that none of her teammates took notice of her subdued demeanor- on the other, she wished that at least one would. Even the old members of team Asuma were too wrapped up in themselves to see her. Shikamaru was obviously furious about his eye- probably quite embarrassed himself- though no one but herself and Choji knew how it had occurred. Choji's stony unresponsiveness could've been caused by any number of things, many of them her fault. Ino disliked this silence between them more than any sort of arguing.

They had skipped breakfast and, because no one spoke out to suggest otherwise, they also skipped lunch. Hunger gnaws at one's temper, and by the middle of the day everyone felt run down and raw. Only Kiba, who chewed on strips of jerky and fed them nondescriptly to Akamaru, was immune to the annoyance that hunger brought upon the rest. Instead, he was tormented by the reality that Hinata remembered nothing of their night together, and by the nagging urge he had to set that right. The sun hung low and torpid in the west by the time Shikamaru slowed his gait, prompting the rest to follow suit. By then the swelling in his eye had gone down, but the bruise had spread to cover more of his face.

"Does anyone object to stopping here for the night?"

No one answered, so Shikamaru set down his pack and slouched off to gather stones for a fire pit. Excepting Choji, the rest broke into their respective groups and slunk off to pitch their tents. They had to break into their food supply because they weren't able to find any game. As night fell they sat around the fire as they had the night before, chewing jerky, slurping vegetable stew, sipping tea.

"Does anyone know anything about the Land of Frost that might help us?" asked Hinata, her voice small. "I've hardly heard anything about it before."

"It's really small," offered Kiba. He knew how hard it must have been for her to break the thick silence, and he loved her for trying. "And I think it's mostly mountains."

"That's right, it's very mountainous," agreed Sakura through a scalding mouthful of tea. "In the winter it's obviously pretty cold, and summer there should feel a little like spring in Konohagakure- if I'm remembering correctly."

Hinata blushed, smiled, and nodded. "I see," she said.

"I don't think there are very many people living there, outside of people working at the oil wells," said Neji after a short pocket of quiet.

"It's not very habitable, but it's full of oil," muttered Shikamaru.

Here they were, being civil and being productive. Each felt his or her own mix of pride and relief. No one knew anything else about the Land of Frost, so they spoke for a while about its terrain compared to other places they'd been. That gave way to stories. With nostalgia, Sakura was able to recall her trips with her family and her past missions with Team Kakashi. With pride, Neji retold what he remembered about his family's estates in Kumogakure. Hinata added more, and they found pleasure in talking about the places they both knew. As the hour grew later, the team relaxed. Even Ino, who couldn't talk, found herself laughing. Even Choji, still guilty and embarrassed, found himself adding anecdotes of his own. The team said goodnight amiably and headed for bed at the same time. Outside their tent, silhouetted by moonlight, Shikamaru and Choji could be seen shaking hands.

"Seriously. Sorry."

"Don't worry about it."

Ino had trouble hiding her cold from Sakura, but she was able to force out sentences in a normal voice and Sakura fell asleep rather quickly. Kept awake by her drippy nose and a mounting itch in her throat that longed to come out in a cough, Ino lay in her sleeping bag and thought about how things used to be. Her younger self would never have tolerated being ignored all day. However, her younger self was weak and stupid and probably would've complained endlessly about her cold. No- her younger self was too straight and narrow to get drunk in the wilderness with a bunch of boys; _that_ was the difference. Three hours of lying on her back forced a rattling cough from her at last, and Sakura was jolted awake.

"You okay?"

Without warning, Ino was in tears. "I think I'm sick," she said, and her voice cracked.

"It's alright, shh." There was a warm hand on her back, and she felt the slip of Sakura's chakra between her shoulder blades and down into her protesting lungs. "It'll take a few tries but we'll get you better by tomorrow evening. Alright?"

"Don't tell the others."

"I wasn't planning on it."

.

this should make sense eventually. you guys should review it anyway. make a poor old girl happy.

next chapter tomorrow or the next day.


	3. three

a/n: things happen.

.

.

The next two days of travel were devoid of anything extraordinary. The team made good time, stopping at campsites and small villages as they approached the border of the Land of Fire. The terrain was still familiar, the people they met along the way were still friendly, and the going was still relatively easy. It was possible to find food without digging any further into their stores. The tension of the previous night had all but dispelled- they'd even had a small round of drinks on the second night to commemorate reaching the border, which had passed without conflict. Each team member knew in the back of his or her mind, however, that this smooth sailing would not last. A few miles from the edge of the Land of Hot Water, through which the team would have to pass to reach the Land of Frost, the warm haze that generally dispersed after the sun rose hung around the tree trunks all day. Moss covered the ground, which became more moist and porous with each step forward. Finally, at sunset, they came to the line between the two lands. Shikamaru turned and addressed the group, still breathing hard from the run.

"The Land of Hot Water is not an ally of the Land of Fire. Yugakure is devoted to peacekeeping, but not all of its residents are in agreement about that. Do you all understand the implications of an altercation with ninja from this land?"

The edges of his black eye had faded to green and brown. It was no longer swollen.

"What are we supposed to do if someone attacks _us_?" asked Kiba.

Quietly, the rest of the team judged his inexorable attraction to violence. He felt it radiating like waves of heat against his back, and he felt ashamed.

"We will not engage other ninja unless it's absolutely necessary for our safety." Shikamaru's voice was firm and appropriately leaderlike. "And as soon as we cross this border we can't make any unnecessary noise or smoke. Things are gonna get serious from here on out."

With that, they stepped across the border in silence. Everything seemed to be exactly as it was- except now they were in a new nation in which people would see them as a threat. Now their well-being truly hung in the balance. They set up camp in the center of a copse of wet-barked, reedy trees. This time, their tents sat much closer to the center and their fire was small and flickering. Dinner was a quick affair with few words exchanged, as everyone was eager to put out the fire and cover up the smoke. Sakura put up one or two cloaking jutsu around the camp for good measure, and they retired for the night.

Lee and Neji fell asleep promptly, but not before taking advantage of their privacy and musing to one another about Shikamaru's eye. Neji guessed that Choji had made a pass at Ino and that they'd fought over her. Choji held his liquor better than Shikamaru, which explained why he hadn't sustained any injuries. (Any that could be seen outside his clothing, at least.) Lee's guess was similar- that Choji had gotten belligerent for some reason and tried to hurt Ino, so Shikamaru stepped in. Neither took into account that the fight could've been Shikamaru or Ino's fault. Both assumed that Ino was in the center. They were wrong on both accounts. Sakura and Ino were up a slightly later, trying to rid Ino of her cough. Her congestion was nearly gone, but for some reason the cough refused to pass. Sakura aimed her chakra at several different angles inside the blonde's lungs, dabbing here and there with varying shapes of the healing energy, but she was unable to clear all of the mucus. Once more, she promised. One more try and Ino would heal completely. Kiba and Hinata blew out their lantern a mere ten minutes after they pinned the tent's door shut- at Hinata's insistence. However, they did not sleep straightaway.

"Are you tired?" Hinata whispered after a few minutes. She was on her back, staring up at the pool of darkness that swallowed the tent's pointed ceiling. Akamaru's head rested on her stomach and she stroked his ears.

"Not really."

"Me neither."

Kiba rolled onto his side and propped himself up on one elbow. "Then why'd you want to shut off the light so fast? You scared or something?"

A pause. Then, "yes."

In spite of himself, he pulled his upper half into the gap between their sleeping pads, closer to her. "Don't be, okay? If anyone comes and tries to fuck with us I won't let them touch you."

She awarded him with a small laugh and he wished he could see her face. It took a moment before she replied. "It's not just me though. I'm afraid for everyone."

What a beautiful person she'd come to be. Desperately, Kiba kicked away his frighteningly intense thoughts toward Hinata with his usual bluntness. "Honey, this is stupid- we're all Chunin. We're not exactly helpless."

"Alright."

He waited for her to say something else- to thank him, to tell him that she was still afraid, to argue with him, anything- but the tent was dipped in tepid silence. Immediately he worried that he'd insulted her. What else was he supposed to do? If he stopped with his sarcasm and attitude in front of her she'd realize that something was wrong, but he realized that her admittance of being afraid took trust, which he had betrayed by mocking her.

"Um. Where's Akamaru?" he asked. He knew exactly where Akamaru was. He could hear Hinata's fingers scratching behind his ear.

If it is possible to hear a person smile, Kiba did. Or he hoped that he did. "He's right here," she whispered sweetly. "He's got his head on my lap."

Kiba reached his arm out and found Akamaru's head in the darkness. "He likes you," he said. With fervor clamping at his throat he laid his warm hand over Hinata's cool one and guided it to the scruff of Akamaru's neck. "And he'll love you forever if you scratch him right there."

He heard shuffling as she sat up in order to reach the spot better. Akamaru practically purred with bliss when her fingers found the perfect spot on his neck. Kiba, without another thought, followed Hinata's arm upward until he found her head, ran his fingers into the silky hair at her neck, held her head and pressed his lips to her forehead. Then, with a gruff "g'night" and not a word of explanation, he rolled over and shut his eyes tightly. He might have heard the tiniest whisper of "wait," as he adjusted his sleeping bag, but he couldn't be sure. When he stopped moving she was silent. In the blinding dark, though he listened hard, he did not hear the rustle of Hinata's sleeping bag that would signal her lying back down and going to sleep. It felt like eternity before she did so, and even longer before her breathing slowed as it did when she slept. Not that Kiba knew what that sounded like- that would mean he'd have been listening.

At around two in the morning, Kiba was still awake. At that point something compelled him to get up. He shrugged on his jacket, unbuttoned the front flap of the tent, pulled on his sandals, and walked to the edge of the trees to relieve himself. He was beyond thinking- he'd spent a few hours doing that already, having eventually decided that it would be best to apologize to Hinata and blame the kiss on nerves rather than to try and explain his actual and very muddled reasons for doing it. Now he was awake simply because the smooth warmth of her skin under his lips still had his heart racing. In the misty dark he trudged back to the tent, all at once quite sleepy. However, when he bent down at the black mouth of the tent he smelled an unfamiliar scent wafting from the inside- just the smallest hint of sulfur.

"Get the fuck away from her," he growled.

"Or what?" came a thin hiss from inside. "You're not from here, little shit, who do you think's gonna help you if something happens to your girl? Now shut your mouth like a good boy and listen to me slit her throat."

Kiba's hands shook hard. He tried to reach a kunai knife in his side pouch but his numb fingers could scarcely feel the clasp. Wetting his lips, he gave a low whistle- three distinct notes. Immediately Akamaru sprang awake and, with a snarl, pounced on the figure. From outside, Kiba heard a shriek, presumably from Hinata, followed by the unmistakable puff of a shadow clone dispersing. He barreled into the tent and fumbled with the lantern until it lit. Hinata was awake, staring at him wide-eyed and pale-faced. There was a pinprick of blood on her neck from where the shadow clone had held the tip of the knife. Her bottom lip trembled. Kiba knelt and wrapped his arms around her.

"I woke up and he had a knife to my throat," she whispered, her voice thick with tears. "I couldn't defend myself. I-I didn't see his face."

"It's alright," Kiba shushed her. "I'm gonna go wake up the others. Stay here with Akamaru."

"No, I'm coming with you." She held his arm tightly in both of her hands.

With the others awake and gathered in the center of the site, surrounded by lanterns, they discussed possible explanations. From what the clone had said, it seemed more likely that this was an isolated attack by border rogues out to loot newcomers while they slept. If that was the case, however, it did not make sense that only one clone showed up. A quick sweep of both Neji and Hinata's Byakugan yielded no sign of any humans for nearly five miles in every direction. The caster of the shadow clone would've had to send it an hour or so beforehand for it to arrive at that time. Still, there was no chance of anyone being able to get back to sleep, nor did Shikamaru think it wise to stay where they were. They packed haphazardly in the sparse light of the lanterns and were back on the trail within minutes. Kiba and Hinata stuck close together and no one questioned it. They were still running, pushing deeper into the core of the Land of Hot Water, when the sky turned grey with the first light of morning. It was with both reluctance and relief that they stopped to rest. They slept in shifts. Kiba and Hinata went first at Shikamaru's insistence. Without a single thought they slept holding hands, with Akamaru curled tight at Hinata's hip. The shifts continued, two hours each, until everyone had a chance to rest. Until then those who were awake kept watch and talked quietly amongst themselves.

"What could've possessed him to sneak into Kiba's tent, out of all the choices?" asked Ino.

"Didn't you hear?" muttered Shikamaru. "Kiba stepped out and the guy snuck in."

"But what if he hadn't stepped out?" she pressed. "Does that mean he would've been waiting for us when we woke up?"

"Dunno."

"But that doesn't make any _sense_!" she was getting upset now. She had to stop talking to cough. "What could one shadow clone do to all of us?"

"Kill us in our sleep," offered Choji.

Shikamaru waved his hand angrily. "_Jesus,_ Choji," he snapped. "I've been thinking a lot about this. It's much more likely that someone meant to send that clone as a message to us. Guess he saw Kiba leaving the tent as an opportunity to make a bigger impact than a purely verbal warning might've. Unfortunately for us that means we still don't know exactly what these people want from us. Seems like they'd like us to leave. Although I dunno if that means leaving this forest or leaving the Land of Hot Water altogether. Either way, we should try to make our stay in this area brief. And maybe stick to villages from now on."

The others agreed, and after everyone had gotten a little more sleep they packed up once more and continued on. The day lasted twice as long as any other on that trip had, even the one following their first night of drinking. It was hot, humid, and hazy. Clouds of gnats and mosquitoes hung in the air like dust, clinging to the team's sticky skin as they loped through the trees. They did not meet another soul for miles and miles. Lunch was given up in the interest of reaching civilization before dark. At around four that afternoon they finally happened upon a small village. It did not seem to have any ninja affiliation- in fact it was decorated almost exclusively with signs and banners advertising different bath houses and hot springs. Shikamaru led the group into the largest, most well-lit house he could find, still quite small compared to those that could be found in more populated areas like Konohagakure. In the interest of safety they booked a large suite to share.

The bath house was nearly empty, though Neji could make out bodies in three of the other rooms. Exhausted, they collapsed around the table in the main room of the suite and let out the breaths they'd been holding for what felt like all day. Hopefully the coming night would bring some actual rest.

.

.

sweet FUCK i'm exhausted. i need to start writing earlier in the evening! pardon the probable typos. plus i freaked myself out with the night scene so now i'm totally never gonna sleep anyway. oh well, enjoy the chapter and give me that sweet sweet feedback, my babies. next chapter coming up in a few days featuring ~possibly~ a sexy sexy bath scene oooooohhhh


	4. four

a/n: Why yes, it _has_ been a month since I updated! I got a job makin SERIOUS BANK and have been very busy and very tired! It might've helped speed up the process to get some feedback too. Just saying. Right now I pretty much wanna marry Kay-Griffyn for being the only person to take 3 seconds and say something (and something very nice, I might add)~ the rest of yall need to step up or no more wonky story for you. Here goes.

.

.

The bath house, although large, showed obvious signs of age. While sitting at the table in the center of their suite, Sakura looked to the ceiling when the subtle but needling flicker of the light above her began to give her a headache. Neji and Hinata both picked up the sheen of dust on every surface and the cracks in the wall paint. Kiba smelled black mold, especially closer to the doors. Shikamaru nearly tripped over the worn edge of an old, dusty tatami mat. It was no wonder- the town seemed sparsely populated and devoid of any tourists, and with so many rival bath houses the competition must've been impossible. Rooms were a problem again. There were three small rooms branching off from the center- each large enough for three people. Upon examining each room Sakura and Ino each grabbed one of Hinata's arms and dragged her off to the one that seemed cleaner than the others.

"We're so sorry you got stuck with Kiba last time," Sakura whispered to her sheepishly. "If we had enough space of course you could've stayed with us."

"I-I-…I really don't mind," Hinata stammered. "If Kiba wasn't there when that clone came-"

"What, we could've protected you just as well!" Ino cut her off, her voice back in full force if not a bit scratchy. "And maybe that creeper would've gone for Kiba and left you alone."

The girls set up their beds as one giant bed as girls do and slipped outside to see the hot springs. That left Kiba, Shikamaru, Choji, Neji, and Lee to divide into three and two. They stood around the table in silence, all clutching their backpacks, for a few seconds.

"Hey Neji," Shikamaru muttered. "You wanna room with Choji and me tonight? I've got some, um. Some logistics I want to talk over with you."

Truthfully, he wanted Neji's eyes so he could keep watch during the night. Besides, rooming with Kiba after what had happened wasn't very appealing. He and the others walked off, leaving Kiba and Lee alone. They had probably spoken to one another around two or three times in total. Kiba slung his bag over his shoulder and started toward the last room without a word. Akamaru rose from his position at Kiba's feet and trotted off behind him. Lee hoisted up his own bag and loped after them. He'd always thought Kiba was a bit of a slacker, but he did admire his fighting spirit- from the little fighting that he'd seen Kiba do. Lee thoroughly annoyed Kiba, but mostly because Gai-sensei thoroughly annoyed Kiba and he knew that the two came as a set.

"Do you think that whoever sent that clone will leave us alone tonight?" Lee asked cautiously, falling into step beside Kiba.

"Dunno," Kiba replied. "I mean, we ran a long way today so hopefully we got outta their territory, but who the hell knows?"

Lee nodded. They threw their bags down inside the small bedroom and began unrolling their mats. After a minute or so of silence Kiba stood up, slid the door shut, and knelt next to Lee.

"One thing I noticed, though- this whole place smells like that clone did," he whispered. "I guess it's the sulfur from the baths. I dunno what that means, but it's putting me on edge."

Lee's eyes widened. "Really?" He took a deep breath but smelled nothing. "Do you think we should tell Shikamaru?"

Kiba shook his head. "Nah. This country is full of hot springs so I wouldn't be surprised if everyone smelled like that. Fuckin' disgusting if you ask me."

Lee laughed, his hand moving to the threadbare yukata provided at the bath house's door. "Does that mean you would object if I took a bath out there?"

With a smile and a cock of his head, Kiba replied "Do whatever you want, man."

Lee smiled too, spurred on by Kiba's friendliness. "You should come too! I think that relaxing would do you some good, even if you don't like the smell."

Kiba shrugged again. "I guess," he mumbled, and he turned away to change into his own scratchy yukata. "Akamaru, stay."

Across the hall, Choji, Neji, and Shikamaru were had finishing squeezing their mats and blankets into the cramped bedroom and were also heading outside toward the hot springs. Neji knew well enough not to ask about the so-called "logistics" to which Shikamaru had previously alluded- obviously he wanted to avoid rooming with Kiba. Neji didn't blame him, even though he thought it was silly, but he felt bad for forcing Lee to room with someone he barely knew. Lost in thought, he walked slightly behind the other two. Upon seeing movement in the corner of his eye he looked up to see the three girls making their way to the women's bath. Ino was still fiddling with the band of her yukata, and Hinata's thigh peeked through the gap of hers. Through their giggling he walked up without a word and pulled his cousin's yukata fully closed.

_"Neji!_" Hinata squeaked, startled.

He walked away with a quiet _hmph_, rejoining his group and greeting Lee when he ran into them further down the hall. When the girls were out of sight Choji elbowed Neji with a grin.

"You could've let them be, y'know," he laughed. "None of us had a problem with the view."

"That's exactly why I intervened," Neji replied shortly.

"Sucks for you, Kiba," Choji whispered loudly enough for the entire group to hear.

"And why is _that_?" Neji asked, fixing Kiba with a narrow-eyed stare. Having always possessed an unexplainable knack for sensing this sort of thing, he knew completely well why _that_ was. Of course, that didn't mean he approved. True, Kiba seemed to be smitten with his cousin in a surprisingly pure sense of the word- but he was wild and unpredictable and Neji couldn't think of a single scenario in which the two of them would work out without Hinata getting hurt. In his own detached and disinterested way, Neji worried for Hinata's safety. He guessed, however, that Kiba would not back down even if he knew that Neji didn't approve. In the end, Hinata would have to judge the matter for herself. Through all this Kiba stuttered his excuses. He had no idea what Choji meant, they were just teammates! Girls _should_ keep their yukata closed! Neji just rolled his eyes.

"Just keep it in your pants, dog boy."

With that, he let his yukata fall from his shoulders, folded it into a tight square, and stepped into the steaming water without so much as a wince. The other boys followed suit, laughing awkwardly at Neji's earnestness. Chilled sake was passed around the group and, excepting Lee, soon their laughter was loud enough to echo off the high bamboo walls that surrounded the spring. Lee sat back against the edge of the spring, the only sober observer, and watched the others. In particular he noticed and judged, before he could stop himself, the others' bodies in comparison to his own. The only person whose skin and muscle showed more evidence of hard training than his own did was Kiba, whose tanned skin was flecked with scars and scratches that probably came as a result of roughhousing with Akamaru. Next there was Shikamaru, a natural ectomorph despite all the time he spent lying around, currently leaning an elbow heavily on Neji's shoulder. Pale, thin Neji who decimated Lee every time they sparred, deceptively lean for a man of his strength, sipped his sake and took the full weight of Shikamaru's arm without moving. Choji, the polar opposite of Neji with his husky build and ever-fluctuating weight, held the sake bottle up with a meaty arm tinged lobster-red from the hot water and offered it to Lee for what felt like the tenth time in as many minutes. Lee, strong but never strong enough, skin marred with scars from his recent operation, smiled and declined the sake again.

The three girls sat quietly on the other side of the wall. Ordinarily they might've talked a little more, especially with the aid of alcohol, but two things were standing in their way. First, they hadn't had the sense to order any sake- or, in actuality, none of them had an I.D. with which to purchase it. Second, they were not alone in the bath as their male counterparts were, but instead shared it with a mousy-haired woman of around fifty years. She had already been sitting there when they arrived, a small white towel folded on her forehead, watching the door as the three young ladies slid it open and ventured outside. Ino, who was in the middle of a rather loud sentence concerning Sakura's lack of a personal life, stopped mid-word when she saw the foreign woman. From that point until about ten minutes into their bath, no one said a single word. The girls were startled when the woman stirred and then spoke.

"You all aren't from here, are you?" she asked, leaning forward to examine each girl's face. "We never see such pretty green eyes in Hot Water. Nor such striking white ones- are those Konohagakure's famous Byakugan, sweetheart?"

"Oh- I-... yes, ma'am," Hinata answered shakily, too flustered by the compliment to think of anything else to say.

"Are you from around here?" asked Sakura. "Pardon my asking, but do you have any advice on how to get to Shimogakure? We're traveling there for the first time. For a vacation."

The woman turned her head to stare at Sakura with crinkled eyes. "A vacation in _Shimogakure_? I've never heard of such a thing!" She coughed out a laugh. "I live in a village just outside that place, and let me tell you- it's nothing special. Not a hot spring in sight! Just mines and poor folks and bars full of men whose hearts are as cold as the weather there. That's why I spend all my time down here in Hot Water. I don't want anything to do with Frost."

Sakura leaned forward, intrigued. "Nice to meet you, ma'am. My name is Sakura, and this is Ino and Hinata. So, um, you say the people there are poor? What about the guys who own the mines and things? What do you know about them?"

"You're quite curious for a tourist, sweetheart," the woman said as she reclined back into the water, the tops of her wrinkled breasts brushing the surface. "I don't really rub elbows with that sort of folk- I'm a simple woman from a simple family. They don't bother us either, just stay up in their houses and do their jobs. You'd do well to stay away from them as well. I hear they're pretty cagey."

Sakura gave Hinata and Ino each a brief look, then turned back to the woman and lowered her voice to a whisper. "Listen, don't repeat this to anyone, but we're part of a team of ninja from Konohagakure that's investigating the Oil and Stone industries in Frost. If you happen to have any tips, we'd be really grateful."

The woman clapped her hands to her mouth and gasped. "_Kunoichi?_ You three beautiful girls?" she whispered conspiratorially. "I never would've thought! That really makes me wish I knew some juicy gossip about the merchants- but sadly, I don't know anything. I can tell you a few shortcuts back to Shimogakure, though."

After they talked for a little while longer the girls thanked her, climbed out of the bath, and headed inside. It was quite late by then and they wanted a good night's rest before the long trip the next day. As the ascended the steps they heard an explosion of laughter from the men's bath and giggled to one another at the thought of the male members of their party having a bath together. Ino even went so far as to start the inevitable Size Speculation conversation. (Which Hinata begged to discontinue when Neji was mentioned.) They showered and, drowsy and warm, prepared to collapse into bed and fall asleep. The hall was dark and the inside of their room was darker. Ino entered first and felt along the wall for the light switch. When she found it and flicked it on, the bulb in the ceiling flashed and died out with an audible pop. However, the millisecond-long flash revealed a figure sitting cross-legged in the center of their bed. Hinata's heart lurched- it was the man who had threatened her in the tent, she was sure even without having seen his face.

"Wh-what do you want?" her voice was reedy and small.

"What," the same voice from the other night hissed back, "can't I drop in and visit my old friend? We didn't finish our business, did we sweetheart?"

Without another word of warning the figure sprang forward. Ino felt a hand wrap around her forehead, and she squeezed her eyes shut and screamed as her head was driven hard into the wall behind her. She fell to her knees, head spinning and pounding, warm blood creeping through her hair and down the back of her yukata. Hinata choked back the tears in her throat and lunged, collecting chakra in her fingertips and hitting the body before her with a haphazard Gentle Fist attack. She jabbed again and again but even with her Byakygan she was too shocked to force herself to concentrate on the man's chakra points. She made up for her inaccuracy with force, snapping her hands hard into the form until she heard bones cracking. However, after a moment the man managed to slip past her and run down the hall. While she whirled around and tried to locate him, he buried a kunai knife in her shoulder. She collapsed next to Ino and almost immediately she felt Sakura's hands on her shoulder, glowing with chakra.

"Sakura! Sakura, _hide!_" Hinata's yell was hoarse but still very loud. She writhed against Sakura's touch, trying to throw her hands off. "_Sakura! _Get out of here! _Get the hell out of here_!"

As she yelled, she heard slow but steady footsteps coming back up the hallway towards their room. With a final jerk she shook Saukra off and breathed a sigh of relief as she heard the kunoichi's footsteps pattering in the other direction. Hinata didn't have time to take in another breath before a foot was driven into her back. As she struggled to stand up and continue fighting, she hoped Sakura would think to bring help.

Rock Lee sat back and watched the steam of the bath wafting into the inky sky. He hardly listened to the others' conversation, lulled into a dreamlike state by the warmth. When Choji offered him the bottle again, he took it tipped it shakily over his cup until a thin stream fell from the lip. What could a single swallow do, after all? When he knocked the shot back and heard the others cheer, he felt so proud that he took two more- and that was enough. He joined in their laughter and conversation for an undefinable stretch of time before, definitively drunk, he stood up and climbed out of the bath.

"Where you goin', man?" Shikamaru called after him before he could clear the stone steps that led back to the house.

"I GOTTA _PEE!_" he called back way too loudly.

The group dissolved into breathless laughter. "You wanna…" Kiba wheezed between laughs, "…put some _clothes_ on first?!"

Lee looked down, snorted, and pulled a stray yukata he found on the floor around his dripping frame. He was still laughing as he swayed through the door and down the hall to the bathroom. None of the lights were on, and he nearly had a heart attack as something ran into him.

"_Lee_," the figure whispered shrilly, "_oh Jesus fucking Christ Lee_-!"

"Sa..kura?" was all he could manage.

.

.

AHAHAHAWWWW DAMN CLIFFHANGER. but that was a nice long chapter now LOVE ME


	5. five

super fast updating before i go away for two weeks no jutsu! watch and be amazed as i suck at writing ninja battles right before your very eyes. also hey look a warning: look out there's sex

.

.

_Sakura's in trouble,_ thought Lee through a thick haze of alcohol, _your sweet Sakura is in danger and it's your duty to protect the ones you love! _He swayed against Sakura, who had her face buried in the damp collar of his yukata, grabbed her shoulders as any manly savior should, and looked her in the eyes as best he could in the darkness.

"_WhudappenedSakura_!" he blurted in her face. He swallowed hard and tried again, hating himself for having given in to the temptation to drink. "What… what happened, Sakura?"

"Ino, Hinata and I came back inside to go to bed," she whispered, taking Lee by the wrist and leading him down the hall as she spoke. "When we got back there was someone in our bedroom. He-" her voice caught. "H-he hurt Ino… really bad. Hinata, too. I think she hurt him too, though. I ran to get help."

Lee was all at once sobered by the gravity of the situation and whipped into a frenzy by the fact that his teammates had been injured. As they approached the door he breathed deeply and gathered his focus. Now was the time to protect Sakura and the others- to be a hero. He slipped in front of Sakura and felt his way along the wall. As they approached they heard muffled noises coming from further up. Though he knew he should have, Lee found that he felt no fear. In fact, confidence bubbled in his throat like warm soda pop. As he brushed his fingers along the wall they ran over a light switch. Steeling himself once more, he flipped it. Oily yellow light stung his eyes. Up ahead, though they were slightly blurry, he saw Hinata and a tall man with streaks of blood dripping from his nose struggling against the doorframe of the girls' room.

"Hinata, please step aside!" he yelled as he broke into a run. Halfway there he stumbled, but he managed to turn his loss of footing into a leap. As he ascended he took a deep breath and bellowed "_KONOHA SENPUU_" loudly enough to wake the dead.

The first kick connected with the side of the man's head. Lee felt the fleeting but familiar feeling of the flesh of the cheek conforming to the shape of his shin as he drove it forward as hard as he could. Hinata fell against the wall, gasping. Lee's second kick, aimed at the gut, instead connected with the wall and sent bits of plaster flying everywhere. The man took this as an opportunity to deliver a few swift punches to Lee's side, but the pain hardly registered. Lee landed directly in front of the man and they locked arms, each struggling to keep the other still while trying to sneak in a punch or a kick here and there. Dimly, Lee noticed that the fingernails digging into his bare arms were drawing blood. The man was obviously bleeding internally- he was breathing hard through clenched teeth and each exhalation sent a spray of blood onto Lee's face. They stood there in the deadlock, shivering with energy and exertion, until Sakura ran forward and delivered a well-aimed hit to the man's temple. Immediately his grip slackened and he collapsed, his head hitting the wooden floor with a solid clunk and sending a trail of dark blood bursting from his mouth.

Lee straightened his yukata. His head was nearly clear now. "Is he-…" he trailed off. His normally smooth hair was curled from the steam of the hot spring and mussed from the quick battle. His left cheek was covered in flecks of red.

"Yeah," murmured Sakura.

Supremely aware of what he was doing, Lee pulled Sakura's stiff form into his arms and held her until she relaxed. When she finally did, Lee was shocked to discover her arms creeping around his waist. Their hug tightened as their arms and hands slid over one another, bodies pushing together in a way that implied something that Lee hoped to god was more than just wishful thinking on his part. When they broke apart, Sakura avoided his eyes and turned to Hinata. There seemed to be more damage on the surface than internally- she had quite a few bruises and a bloody nose, but the kunai wound on her shoulder was shallow. Sakura did what she could to patch that up before dashing into the bedroom to see to Ino. Hinata blinked sluggishly, her head falling to one side as she looked at Lee.

"Can I do anything to help you, Hinata?" he asked.

When she opened her mouth her teeth were tinged pink. "Go get them."

Of course the others had to find out, but Lee found that bringing them in all at once dissolved into chaos. Choji and Shikamaru were irate over Ino, who was awake but extremely confused. They insisted, in voices much too loud for the hour and for the concussed Ino, that they would stay awake with their teammate all night until they could get her to a hospital. Kiba was similarly enraged over Hinata. He yelled- at Sakura, at Lee, and the motionless body of the aggressor, until Neji took him off to the side and said something to him in a quiet but sharp tone. Every single one of them was angry at Sakura and Lee for not coming to get them. The sleeping arrangements were thrown again into unbalance. Ino was placed carefully on a mat in the main room of the suite, and Choji, Shikamaru, and Neji arranged themselves around her. Neji would rather have slept closer to Hinata, but Shikamaru insisted he stay so they could discuss their next move and keep watch. Grumbling to himself, Kiba slung Hinata's arm over his shoulder and helped her limp into his and Lee's room. The door slid shut with a snap that was impossible to misinterpret as anything besides "stay away." Inside, they found that Akamaru had nearly scratched a hole in the wall, trying to get out when the commotion started. Kiba patted the dog's head absent-mindedly, laid out water and food or him in the corner, and stretched out on his mat. Hinata reached up to shut the light off and sighed as she settled onto Lee's old mat.

"I'm sorry I wasn't there," Kiba whispered. That didn't even _begin_ to cover how terrible he felt.

"It's okay," Hinata replied after a beat. "It's not your job to protect me."

Kiba felt stung by this, even though Hinata hadn't meant anything by it. "What if-…" he didn't even know how to word this. He leaned over and brushed her bangs from her forehead. "What if I, uh… what if I want it to be my job?"

Hinata said nothing- she was probably quite embarrassed, knowing her. She simply twined her fingers with his and settled down to sleep. For Kiba this wasn't a reply, but it was certainly an answer.

The hall outside was bathed in silence. Without a word between them, Sakura and Lee trudged into the girls' bedroom and collapsed onto either side of the combined bed. After a minute of lying there Sakura sat up again and wet a tissue with her water bottle.

"Hey," she muttered, her voice worn. "You should get that blood off your face."

Lee reached forward to take the tissue, but Sakura reached past his outstretched hand and dabbed at the drying blood on his cheek herself. He couldn't stop himself from blushing- she was just so _close_. With a final swallow he laid his hand over Sakura's and leaned forward just enough for their mouths to touch. He felt her inhale and exhale through her nose, and without breaking the contact she threw the wet tissue to the side and pressed herself closer to him, deepening the kiss. Lee, as overzealous as ever, gripped her cheek with one hand and her waist with the other and moved his mouth hard against hers. Through the kiss Sakura scoffed at his inexperience. Nevertheless she wrapped her arms around his neck and spread out onto her back, pulling him on top of her. By now his yukata had been pulled from his shoulders and hers had fallen open to reveal her left breast, small but soft and very warm to the touch. Their mouths were open against one another and their tongues corkscrewed in one direction, then another, then another. Soon after Lee first allowed his palm to pass over Sakura's exposed breast he had both in his hands- touching, memorizing.

"Sakura," Lee whispered while he ran his lips from her collarbone down to her belly button. "I... love you. I really, really… nnh."

Her fingers sliding along his scalp and gripping his hair by the roots sucked the words from his mouth before he could finish. Sakura didn't reply, simply lying there with her hands in his hair and allowing him to kiss her skin. After a minute or so she brought his face back up to hers and kissed him fiercely, yanking on the collar of his yukata before pushing it completely off of him and wriggling out of her own. Lee's arms and the right side of his body were bruised, but not badly- not so badly that they made Sakura want to stop touching him.

"D'you-" she breathed between kisses, "d'you have…"

After a moment of thinking he realized what she meant with a swoop in his stomach. He kissed her once more before throwing himself upon Kiba's backpack (he _himself_ certainly didn't have any) and tearing out thing after another, searching. Finally he closed his fingers around the familiar square of soft plastic and crawled back to Sakura. His hands shook as he ripped open the package and slipped the condom onto his aching cock because he'd finally realized, belatedly, that he would probably be terrible at this. Mercifully, Sakura took the lead and pulled his hips forward until he was pressing inside her. After a few hoarse seconds of gasping at the new sensation, Lee gave in to instinct and began to move, gaining courage as Sakura hissed and coiled beneath him. As he thrust in and out a wave of shuddering pleasure hit him and he let out a moan. Immediately Sakura shushed him and he remembered where he was. Curling tight against her, Lee increased the speed of his hips while they pressed their open mouths together in an attempt to keep one another quiet. They pushed, they hissed, they sweat, and after a few more minutes Lee clenched his teeth and came hard. Gasping, Sakura pressed two fingers to- well, Lee didn't really know what it was- and came half a minute later, shaking hard with his cock still inside her. Still breathing hard, Sakura stood up quickly to flick the light off before collapsing back into bed.

Lee ran a hand over her forearm through the darkness, partly so he could find her and partly because he assumed she'd need some sort of comfort after what had just happened, for some reason. He hadn't the faintest idea about what to say, so he didn't say anything. He simply peeled off the condom and threw it into the wastebasket in the corner of the room, pulled the blankets over them both, and settled his arm around Sakura's waist. As he drifted toward sleep he felt her slide closer to him and lay her arm over his. And, just like that, Lee lost his virginity to the girl he loved and fell asleep with her in has arms. It felt perfect. However he was aware, on some level, that this moment wouldn't last much past morning.

The next day threw the events of the previous night into sharp focus. Shikamaru awoke to see the body of the assailant lying in the hallway in a pool of congealed blood. He looked over to see Ino and Choji staring blearily at him. Shikamaru's shift for watching Ino had ended an hour ago, leaving Choji to keep her awake until the morning. Shikamaru stretched and scrubbed hard at his eyes. Obviously it would be disastrous for them to stay where they were much longer, so with a yawn he stood up and trudged off to wake up the rest of his team. First he found Neji sprawled with his face buried in his pillow a few feet away. Shikamaru reached down to nudge him awake, but he stirred and opened his eyes half a second before the other's hand could touch him. He stood up, adjusted his yukata, and walked toward the bathroom without a word, stepping delicately over the body in the hall. Shikamaru found, on the way to Sakura and Lee's room, that he couldn't bring himself to walk past it with the same air of disinterest as Neji. He could smell it- the blood and the very beginnings of decay, brought on by the already stifling heat of the morning. As he stepped over it, he averted his eyes and held his breath. Shikamaru had always been a deeply logical person, and to him there was nothing more true or inherent than the finality of death. It was one of the few truths that, although he believed it 100%, he could not completely handle. He knocked on the door to Sakura and Lee's room and immediately heard shuffling from within.

"Just- just a second, okay?" came Sakura's voice from behind the door, sounding thoroughly flustered. Shikamaru pushed back his assumptions- no, she wouldn't have... not with Lee, not with her tireless devotion to the lost cause of Sasuke.

"It's alright, don't open the door. Just be ready in twenty-five minutes." Shikamaru called through the door. "We're leaving."

He moved down to Kiba and Hinata's door. When he knocked and received no answer after about thirty seconds, he slid the door open and peeked in. They were, surprisingly, in separate beds, but hands lay loosely clasped on the floor between them. With a small scoff, Shikamaru slid the door shut again and knocked twice as hard as before. This time Akamaru awoke and started to bark, and Shikamaru heard his two teammates stir from within the room. Kiba opened the door again a moment later, bleary- eyed and wild-haired. Behind him, Shikamaru caught a glimpse of Hinata's face. Because she had slept on her side, the blood in her facial bruises had collected on one side of her face. Her left eyelid was stained deep purple and her cheek was swollen and red. When Shikamaru looked at her he wondered if they could take her into town without attracting too much attention. When Kiba had woken up and looked at her after he heard the knock, he'd thought she still looked beautiful.

"We're leaving in twenty minutes," Shikamaru said, and walked away.

Kiba slid the door shut and turned back to Hinata. She looked up at him and all of a sudden her unbruised cheek flushed bright red.

"Kiba, um," she muttered. "Would you, um… mind helping me with my jacket? I can't really, uh, move my arm… very well."

He smiled and petted her shoulder, picking up her sweatshirt. "Yeah I _guess,_" he rolled his eyes exaggeratedly. "But don't get used to it, okay? Christ, Hinata, stop being such a pain."

Hinata giggled and slid her good arm into one sleeve. "You sound like Shikamaru- _oh_, god-…" she winced as she flexed her shoulder in order to align her other arm with the other sleeve.

Biting his lip, Kiba shushed her softly and gripped her good shoulder to steady her. Deftly he took her by the elbow of her hurt arm and guided her arm into the sleeve of her jacket. "There, that wasn't so bad, was it?"

She shook her head. "Thank you, Kiba."

He shrugged on his leather jacket, rolled up the mats, and gathered his bags. With their things packed, Kiba and Hinata stepped outside the room. Shikamaru, Neji, and Choji were already awake, so they decided to leave a few minutes early in order to take Ino to the hospital and get her concussion checked. While they were gone Hinata and Kiba reluctantly examined the body to make sure they weren't missing any important information. There wasn't much to see- aside from the clothes on his back the man had nothing that could've possibly identified him. He was tall, probably around his late thirties, and had short brown hair and a stubbly beard- an essentially average looking person. He smelled of sulfur as he had before, according to Kiba, but lacked any other smells that might've helped figure out where he came from. His only defining factor was a gold tooth that Hinata spotted right before she gave up her search for anything pertinent. She made a mental note to tell Shikamaru about it when he returned. The two were so engrossed in their task that they gave no thought to Sakura and Rock Lee's whereabouts. It was only when Shikamaru, Ino, Choji, and Neji returned and asked about them that Hinata and Kiba noticed their absence.

"Wait, is Ino alright?" Hinata looked to Shikamaru.

"Why don't you ask _me_ about that?" laughed Ino. She had a large square of gauze secured to the back of her head by bandages that wrapped around her forehead. She'd even managed to thread her hair over the bandage- from far away she looked nearly normal. "I'm fine, I just need to take it a little easy. Thanks for protecting me, Hinata."

Hinata sighed, and moisture crept into the corners of her eyes. "I'm so glad," she whispered. Kiba put a hand on the small of her back and nodded, giving Ino a smile.

Meanwhile, Shikamaru walked up to Sakura and Lee's door and knocked again. This time Sakura opened it right away. She was fully clothed and looked quite put together despite all that had happened- both what the others knew about and what they didn't.

"Are you and Lee ready to go?" asked Shikamaru cautiously.

"Yeah," she replied. "Let's go."

.

.

W O W okay i'm so tired. hopefully i didn't lose my super tiny following by putting sakura and lee together ~ forgive me, i love them a lot

someone help me remember to spellcheck this in the morning kay thanks


	6. six

a/n: back again. i'm about ready to sell my soul to kay-gryffin just so you all know. but *WHALE NOISES* someone else finally reviewed too! THANKS THAT GUY! now why don't the rest of you losers follow their example? idec if you compliment it, just say whatever you think! on that note i'm glad everyone's okay with sakura and lee because i think they are (translation: i think lee is) adorable.

in other news i have no idea how ninjas handle dead bodies. like they don't have police force clan things like the uchiha in small towns so what do they even do? plus so many people die all the time and then their bodies just get LEFT THERE so how do the towns deal with all the bodies/crime scenes? how do they investigate murders? how do they treat ninjas that kill in self-defense? _how_.

.

.

Sakura had been startled awake by Shikamaru's first knock at her door earlier than morning. Looking down, she realized she was still without clothes and hurriedly called out that she needed a moment to get to the door- at which point Shikamaru gave the twenty-five minute warning and walked away. Through all that commotion Lee hardly stirred. Instead he stayed curled against Sakura, arms snug around her waist, breathing evenly, hair askew. Sakura didn't even want to think about what she'd done with him. What she instigated the previous night had not been out of love- she'd wanted a way to distract herself from the fright she'd experienced, and he'd been right there. Now she felt guilty for stringing him along. Of course, it wasn't that Lee was a bad person or that she wouldn't have been open to the idea of being with him. He'd always treated her so well and never swayed in his unwarranted devotion to her, and since Sasuke left for good those facts had no longer gone unnoticed. She appreciated him, and after watching him endure his injuries and operation she admired him as well. This was simply an issue of bad timing. She didn't want drama of this nature to take attention away from Ino's injuries or their new enemies, and in order to make that possible she knew she'd have to disappoint him for the time being. It took a bit of stretching, but she managed to retrieve her yukata and wrap it around her bare shoulders before she reached down and nudged Lee until he opened his eyes. When he finally did after a particularly hard shove, he yawned and looked up at her with the most unbearably heartfelt facial expression she'd ever seen.

"Good morning, Sakura." The smile Lee wore made his words sound warm. He cupped her jaw gently, pulling her face down to press two rich kisses to her cheek. "Is everything alright?"

Sakura nodded dumbly, pushed to silence by his overwhelming tenderness. She felt strange being treated this way. She felt like she didn't deserve it. No, she _knew_ she didn't deserve it. She swallowed against a peculiar feeling in the back of her throat and gazed down at Lee.

"Lee, I-…" she lay a damp palm on his bicep and sighed. "In front of the others I want you to pretend this didn't happen, okay? I just- I just don't want to distract them with this right now. They have their own things to worry about. You understand, right?"

The smile dimmed but did not disappear. "I do," he said, sitting up so he could wrap his arms around her and kiss her forehead. "I appreciate that you are being selfless, but I was really looking forward to showing you off. I figured that…" he laughed and broke into a grin "…if we could not make at least three of the others jealous of us by noon, I would carry you on my back for five miles. And if I could not do that, I would carry both of our backpacks in one hand for the rest of the day. And if I had to put them down to rest, I wo-"

"_Okay,_ Lee," Sakura cut him off before he could dig himself deeper into the idea. "Just…" she sighed, "let's just start this over another time. I can't do it right now."

He sat there for a moment, still holding her, before nodding sheepishly and retracting his arms. Without another word he rolled over to recover his yukata from where it had been thrown the night before. Sakura watched the bruises on his back stretch and flex as he leaned over the edge of the bed. Furrowing her brow, she leaned over and pressed her lips to the back of his neck.

"Just wait, okay?" she murmured.

He turned to her and flashed a thumbs-up. "Of course, Sakura!" he replied with a determined smile. "I can wait for you as long as it takes, and I will be twice as good as I was yesterday! That's a promise."

She laughed- who knew Lee would apply his training methods to _this_ part of his life as well? Sakura swallowed and turned away as she pushed down an unexpected rush of affection for him. "Good," she said. "Alright- starting now, all we did last night was fall asleep."

When Shikamaru knocked the second time they were clothed, packed, and ready to go. The group left the house five minutes later, after Sakura checked Hinata's shoulder and Ino's head one last time and after Shikamaru called the front desk of the bath house as well as the village's tiny law enforcement department about the body. The village was so small and rural that there wasn't much to be done about an attack like this. The best Shikamaru could do was to give a full report of what had happened and to refer the head of the department to the Hokage- but it seemed as if the man he talked to on the phone was rather accustomed to hearing about things like this. Hot Water was a violent place. All this allowed them to get out of the village and back on the road in record time. This time they stuck to the main road, keeping up a steady pace and avoiding long stops at all costs. As they walked, they discussed what they knew about the two attacks.

"For some reason," began Shikamaru, "they've only been targeting the girls. Probably because they assume that they'll be the weaker members of the group."

"Hinata and Sakura sure set 'em right on that one, huh?" laughed Kiba, elbowing Hinata lightly. The rest of the group except Ino laughed along with him.

By about three-thirty that morning, Ino's head had cleared and she was able to think. Before that it'd been awful. She'd been dizzy, developed a piercing headache, and watched the floor in front of her morph and bend right before her eyes. Through all that Shikamaru, Choji, and Neji had taken turns staying awake with her hour by hour. The time with Neji was the most awkward- they hardly knew one another and had trouble thinking of things to talk about. Shikamaru was better, but he was still drunk at the beginning and as the night wore on he got sleepier and even more boring than usual. Choji, on the other hand, seemed to be the perfect person to have around when trying to keep oneself awake. He told jokes, told stories, and did his best to get Ino to talk through her bleariness instead of just talking at her like the others did. By the end of that night she felt like she really knew Choji. Out of the three, he acted the most like his normal self after what had happened, and Ino appreciated that. Choji had always been a good-natured and easygoing person, and that night he was especially friendly for some reason. Well, probably because Ino was injured and he was obviously worried. _Everyone_ was, and that made Ino feel all at once grateful, resentful, and horribly ashamed. Of course it'd been her to get injured first. Of course she wasn't the one to protect Hinata or Sakura. She was useless when it came to close combat, and during slow battles she lacked a talent for strategy. Her specialty was incredibly useful, true- but only in very specific conditions. It made her a great component of a team, but alone she was a shitty ninja and she knew it. That was why, no matter how much it cost her, she vowed to keep up with the others and make herself a valuable member of the squad despite her head injury. She shook a strand of hair from her face with a flourish, out of habit, and rejoined the conversation.

"...wouldn't really be surprised if these attacks were connected to the corruption in Frost somehow," Hinata was saying. "They'd probably want to know about foreigners coming this close to their base, especially if they're doing something illegal."

"You're right," said Neji placidly. "If we were tourists that first attack would've made us turn around for sure. The fact that we kept going toward Shimogakure after that probably put them on edge."

"_I_ wouldn't be surprised if that lady had something to do with all this," Sakura added, referring to the older woman they'd met in the bath.

"You're right," Ino jumped in. "I bet she was some kind of informant or something. She seemed kinda weird. Like, maybe they have spies set up all over to keep watch."

The rest of the group turned their heads toward Ino, smiled, and nodded at her like she'd done something amazing by participating in the conversation despite her concussion. She hated them all for it.

"Either way, we should come up with a strategy in case there's another attack," said Shikamaru. "I think it'd be wise to sleep in shifts and keep watch. That way we might have a chance to _talk_ to these people instead of just letting ourselves be ambushed."

The others agreed unanimously, as unappealing as the idea of less sleep was. "Let's just figure out the arrangements when we get there," Shikamaru said, and all conversation ceased in favor of walking in an exhausted silence.

The day wore on more slowly than usual- they were exhausted, some were injured, it was unbearably humid, and their slower gait made every bend in the road take twice as long to reach. They stopped at an abandoned rest area along the trail for lunch, dipping once again into their stash of non-perishable food after finding none around them. An hour or so after lunch they reached the border of the Land of Frost. The ensuing night would serve as a test- if the attacks stopped once they crossed the border, they would know that the enemy was based in Hot Water and that their cover was not blown in Frost. If the attacks continued, they would have to rethink their strategy for infiltrating the oil and stone merchants' bases.

With bated breath they stepped over the border. Nothing happened, of course. A few birds squealed to one another in the distance and a breeze pawed at their clothes before silence took over. No one jumped out to slit their throats. No one walked out from behind a tree and announced that they'd seen through the group's plan from the beginning. The woods wrapped them in quiet and the filtered sunlight of early afternoon. Warily, they continued walking. Over the past hour or so the terrain had changed again- from hazy forest to an uneven taiga of scrubby grasses and twisted firs, clearer of trees but still bathed in a low hanging fog. The back of Ino's head was throbbing by about three that afternoon, but she refused to bring it up. She drank bottle after bottle of water and kept her mouth shut. Hinata's eye and nose felt less swollen but looked just as severe as they had that morning. Lee's bruises were but a twinge in his side now and again. By sundown they encountered a miniscule town that, according to the map, lay fifteen miles from Shimogakure. The only lodging in town, a bed and breakfast squeezed into a small and dingy wooden house, had only two rooms left. One of the rooms was a family suite with one queen-sized bed and one twin. The other was a standard with two twins.

"Anyone with an injury should take a bed," Kiba proclaimed as they ascended the narrow staircase leading to the two rooms. "After Ino, Hinata, and Lee that leaves two more open beds."

"Please let someone else have my bed!" objected Lee. "I am just fine on the floor." He looked around. "Sakura! Please take my bed."

Sakura gave him a hard stare and replied "if you insist" in the most dispassionate voice she could muster. Acting platonic towards him would be difficult if she was the only one playing along- she would to be sure to make that clear the next time they had a minute alone.

The rest ended up drawing straws for the other two beds, and Neji and Kiba won. The final setup ended up as follows: the first room would hold Ino and Hinata in the queen, Kiba in the twin, and Shikamaru on the floor between the two beds. The second room would hold Sakura and Neji in the twins and Choji and Lee on the floor at the foot of each bed. The occupants of each room would stay awake all at once while those in the other room slept, switching off every two hours. Since the rooms were next door to one another, they could switch sleeping shifts by calling through the thin wall separating them. They had a quick dinner at a nearby noodle house, speaking over the table in hushed tones about the plan for the following day. After that night they would have to split up- half of the team would concentrate on the oil merchants, the other half on the stone merchants. Shikamaru refused to divulge his plans for the teams until the following morning. Truthfully, the attacks had completely invalidated his original plans. Now, with new threats and with members of the team vulnerable due to injury, he formulated something new.

To the oil merchants' base, an all-around more sensitive and subversive undertaking, Shikamaru planned to assign himself, Neji, and Ino. He considered his and the others' skills to be the most subtle, which he thought would be useful in infiltrating the base without creating a scene and attracting unnecessary attention. Ideally he would've liked Hinata on his oil team as well, but her bruised face was too distinctive. He also understood the importance of having a Byakugan user on a team and decided to leave her to the stone team to help them out. The stone team, comprised of the rest of the original group, would be led by Choji and Sakura because they were the most personable of the group. If they wanted to make a good impression, those two would know exactly what to say. However, Shikamaru wasn't eager to reveal his reasons for choosing the teams to the others- sharing one's strategies had proven to be unwise when those strategies were based his personal judgments about the abilities of others. So he would keep his plans to himself until the very end, when it would be too late to question them.

After dinner the occupants of each room broke off and slowly filtered into each room. Ino, Hinata, Shikamaru, and Kiba kept watch first. They propped the door of their room open and sat on the floor around it so they could see into the shadowy hallway. In the next room Sakura, Choji, Lee, and Neji climbed into bed (or into sleeping bags) and shut off the lights without more than a word or two between them. They were all exhausted and knew how valuable even a few extra minutes of sleep would be the next day when their true mission started. Still, it was difficult to get to sleep with the knowledge that another attack could come at any time. About an hour and fifteen minutes in, Sakura heard light shuffling on the floor between her bed and the wall. With her heartbeat choking her she slipped her hand under her pillow and clutched the cold handle of a kunai knife she'd hidden there. She whipped it out soundlessly and, holding her breath, glanced over the side of the bed. There was Lee, with his hand outstretched like he was about to tap her on the shoulder. She nearly stabbed him anyway.

"_What the fuck?"_ she mouthed, careful not to wake the others despite her frustration.

He leaned up and cupped his hand around her ear, whispering "It sounded like you could not sleep either, so I came to keep you company. I missed you."

Sakura rolled her eyes, though through her exasperation she _did_ feel a bit flattered. "You're such a loser," she sighed.

She reached down, combed both hands into Lee's hair, and pulled his face up so they could share a deep kiss. He responded immediately, sliding his hands upward to cup her cheeks and melding his mouth to hers, as if he'd been waiting for that moment since he'd come over in the first place. He probably had, Sakura realized- boys are only after one thing, after all. As they kissed they made sure to move slowly each time they pulled apart so as to avoid any audible smacks. They did well at hiding it- only their breaths and the faint clicks of their mouths parting and meeting again could be heard- but their whispering had already woken Neji up. Assuming the noise was coming from a foreign presence in the room, Neji rolled himself onto his stomach deftly and soundlessly, allowing a curtain of his hair to fall over his face. Breathing evenly despite the trepidation creeping up his throat, he weaved the signs with his hands beneath his body, activated his Byakugan, and focused on the noise. There were Sakura and his teammate, clutching feverishly at one another like this was their last night together. Neji relaxed his eyes and sunk back into bed, wrinkling his nose in distaste. He'd have expected this type of behavior from anyone else on the team, but never Lee. It bothered him on a deeper level than he'd expected- that Lee of all people was doing that. That Lee had found someone.

Five minutes later, Kiba called through the wall to signal the end of his and the others' shift. Choji stood up and smacked the light switch, and the room was bathed in orange. By then Lee was back in his spot at the foot of Sakura's bed, but he was lying outside his sleeping bag and his cheeks were stained red. Neji did his best not to glare.

.

.

after this there's totally gonna be a plot, i promise. also the return of kibahina oooh. i just love lee and sakura a lot okay just DEAL WITH IT GUYS


End file.
